1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the formation of a sample which does not require any external energy for determining the content of dissociable polar liquids in gases, expanded bodies, pouring charges of granular material, or electrically non-conductive liquids. The invention further relates to the provision of a sample or specimen which does not require external energy and which is applicable to the implementation of the process.
In drying processes, for the progression thereof, in addition to the temperature in the goods being dried and the pressure reigning in the goods, a role is also played by the concentration of the liquid (for example, water, alcohol, acetone) and the degree of concentration thereof. In order to be able to optimize the drying process with a view towards obtaining a saving in useable work through a variation in the temperature and of the pressure profile, it is desirable to have available a sample which facilitates the tracking and measuring of the concentration of the liquid.
A further area of utility of a sample for the measurement of a liquid content relates to the change in the water content in the ground, in connection with questions which are of energy-related commercial importance.
Water movements in the ground are of significance in multiple aspects with regard to energy systems. Consequently, it is desirable to be able to continually measure them in situ. During coal mining (in particular strip mining) the ground water is pumped off to a large extent, and there are diverging opinions with respect to the consequences. However, no measurements are available which indicate to which extent there is affected the moisture within the earth, for example, at the depth of tree roots or below buildings; for instance, as to how extensively the influence of weather conditions is still dominant over the ground moisture. Herein, this relates to water concentrations which allow the mineral strata (loam) to swell and shrink, and to minute water vapor densities in the ground, which are important to vegetation during the dry seasons.
Another area of utility of a sample for the measurement of the water content relates to the use of the ground as a heat storage. Heat transport and water transport are coupled with each other. Physical-mathematical models for ground heat storage and ground heat pumps accordingly require, for their experimental verification, a simple, continual in situ measuring method for the moisture.
In the sphere of nuclear energy use, there is encountered the problem of prognosticizing the heat transport processes across geological mineral deposits. The heating of the sediment strata across mineral deposits reduces the water content. Thereby, the heat conductivity reduces and, as a consequence thereof, the temperature gradient rises further. The measurement of the water content is thereby desirable also in this instance.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Methods for the measurement of the water content are presently known. Thus, it is known to withdraw samples from the goods being dried, and to determine the liquid content through weighing, or through more complex methods, such as light spectroscopy, neutron spectroscopy, or microwave absorption.
For continual in situ measurements, in principle, as samples there can be utilized open condensers, whose capacitance and loss factor depend upon the water content and upon the temperature of the dielectric medium through its dielectric function .epsilon.(.omega.)=.epsilon.'+.epsilon.". The utilization of samples of that type, however, is quite demanding from the standpoint of the measurement technology, and can be employed only for small distances (approximately 1 meter) between the sample and the capacitance measuring bridge.